Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) Shares Bought by Legacy Advisors LLC

Legacy Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 13.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 95 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 11 shares during the period. Legacy Advisors LLC’s holdings in Booking were worth $438,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BKNG. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Booking by 521,609.7% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,363,345 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $10,887,718,000 after acquiring an additional 2,362,892 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Booking by 621,874.8% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 864,545 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,295,423,000 after acquiring an additional 864,406 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,958,352,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Booking by 51.4% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 280,629 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,394,283,000 after buying an additional 95,308 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Booking by 18.8% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 368,628 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,831,499,000 after buying an additional 58,357 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on BKNG. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Booking from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. JMP Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,600.00 to $5,700.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. B. Riley boosted their price objective on shares of Booking from $6,000.00 to $6,100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,960.00 to $5,557.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Booking from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Booking has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $5,388.37.

Booking Stock Up 0.1%

BKNG opened at $5,485.35 on Thursday. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $3,180.00 and a 52-week high of $5,639.70. The company has a 50 day moving average of $5,231.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $4,950.49. The company has a market cap of $178.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.41.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The business services provider reported $24.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $17.57 by $7.24. The company had revenue of $4.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.58 billion. Booking had a net margin of 22.58% and a negative return on equity of 143.67%. Booking’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $20.39 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th will be paid a $9.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 6th. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.70%. Booking’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.89%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 1,013 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5,356.07, for a total value of $5,425,698.91. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 27,646 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,073,911.22. This represents a 3.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Booking Profile

Booking Holdings Inc, formerly The Priceline Group Inc, is a provider of travel and restaurant online reservation and related services. The Company, through its online travel companies (OTCs), connects consumers wishing to make travel reservations with providers of travel services across the world. It offers consumers an array of accommodation reservations (including hotels, bed and breakfasts, hostels, apartments, vacation rentals and other properties) through its Booking.com, priceline.com and agoda.com brands.